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Wednesday, May 20
The Indiana Daily Student

Summer DVD standouts

Best in Show, Traffic, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Dogma: Special Edition

This will be an awesome disc for any fan of the mockumentary genre or Christopher Guest. Guest, otherwise known as Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist for fictional band Spinal Tap, wrote and directed this "documentary" about dog shows and the crazy people who are obsessed with them. \nThe DVD will feature commentary by Guest. He is one of the best improvisational comedians in the world, so it should be a great addition. There are also many deleted scenes. Most of the movie was not written beforehand, so a lot of funny things didn't make it to the screen. But the best part of the disc will be the ability to skip right to the Mayflower Dog Show and watch actor Fred Willard's hilarious dog commentary again and again.

This drug epic won the Academy Award for best screenplay, best supporting actor and best director but will not win any special awards for the DVD. The movie is great and will be presented with digital video and audio magnificently, but the special features are definitely lacking in the bulge.\nThere will be no audio commentary by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh or Oscar winning writer Stephen Gaghan. How can these two not do a commentary on this disc? There will probably be a special edition with the commentary featured in the near future, but for now fans will have to settle for nothing. There will be a behind-the-scenes featurette and the Showtime Special "Inside Traffic." These will be interesting, and the movie is great alone. But the DVD could be better.\nThis DVD will sell more copies than any DVD that has ever been released. Not only is it the best movie of the year, the best foreign movie ever and the best martial arts movie ever, it provides the best time one can have while watching a movie. Plus the DVD is packed with extras. \nFirst is a commentary by director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus that will let everyone in on the secrets of the Wu and how to fly. Then a behind-the-scenes featurette reveals many secrets. In-depth details will explain how the filmmakers pulled off the incredible fight scenes and how no one actually received any injuries while fighting with the numerous weapons used throughout the film. A conversation with star Michelle Yeoh and some music videos round out this DVD out to make it an amazing seller.

When director Kevin Smith released "Dogma" on DVD earlier in the year, audiences were disappointed. No special features at all. All that changes with the special edition that might be released this summer. This will be no doubt the greatest DVD ever released.\nFour commentaries! One by producer Scott Mosier, one by director and writer Kevin Smith, another by producer Scott Mosier and View Askew (Smith's production company) historian Vincent Pereira and one by Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) as themselves. If anyone has seen the "Mallrats" commentary, in fact the best commentary around, he or she knows that when these guys get together, it is something special.\nAlso included is a documentary about the hardships the filmmakers went through in dealing with protests. The disc has more than 100 minutes of deleted scenes, which is just as long as the original movie. With outtakes and some other bonus items, this disc will be the best out there.

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